Yaya Toure

[harrogateblue]

Might be a combination of things, etc fitness, position in the team, attitude or the time it needs to settle in the EPL, however last night was like playing with 10 men. How he stayed on the park for 90 mins when he was blowing out of his arse after 30 was amazing.
The ability to influence a game and be a part of it is what world class football players do and if we all were honest and we didn't know who this guy was we would all be saying he was crap.
I don't honestly believe he is crap but I don't believe the hype of how great he is/was either.
Last night he was sh1te and of that there is very little doubt.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

He was awful, but clearly not as bad as his fitness.

He has been here enough months already to have at least attained decent levels.

Yaya has the talent, but his size is also his undoing.

Teams pass around him and isolate, such as Arsenal and last night.

If he's a box to box, he needs the fitness to now go with it.

 

[i8rags]

either very unfit or will never look better than last night.

 

[Astuteboy]

Don't think he was much worse than Gaz Baz or Milner tbh.

At least he tried to make things happen with some forward running from time to time (I know it didn't lead to much) whilst the rest of the team continually passed it sideways and backwards.

As for this season, thought he played pretty well at WBA so I'm confident he'll come good. People just need to not get too hung up on his body language or lack of closing down etc and give the guy some time.

 

[u2fme2]

looks over weight to me.. if he is on 200.000
a week then we really are getting mugged

 

[davymcfc]

yaya was absolutely shocking last night.

 

[Neil McNab]

"He's a better player than Buskets" I read on here, I chuckled at that when we signed him, didn't want him and he's turned out to be just what I expected. We're shit in central midfield. If you're goiung to play with De Jong the other two have to be pretty special and they aren't.
Mancini is still making no progress and making demented decisions.
"Quick Plattio, putta da Adebayor ona fora 30 seconds"

 

[pee dubya]

What do you want him to do? run round and round in circles until he's knackered? Considering his ball carrying was a key part of our plan to try and knick a goal, tiring himself out after an hour probably wouldn't be the best plan.

Perhaps he should be fitter yes, but he's not, he doesn't look like a natural athlete to me, so it'll take time.

 

[CelticBhoyCityBlue]

I really cant begin to understand how this guy was left on the pitch today. One of the most gutless, lazy performances ive ever seen from a City player in a Manchester Derby today.. strolling around like he was playing in La Liga, I must of counted over 10/15 times in the second half where he half heartedly laboured towards Carrick/Scholes when they were in possession. You compare him with how hard Barry, De Jong and the United three worked to stop the other team from getting any real time on the ball to play a telling pass, and it really does show just how fucking bad he was today, never mind continously running into blind alleys with the ball.

Absolutely fucking useless tonight, why oh why didnt Mancini just move Milner into the middle (our best player by the way), and take him off.

Credit to the defence and Barry/Nige, cant take anything away from how all of those played tonight.

Agree with just about all of that. He's a decent player hence, the transfer fee and the club he was signed from! I thought his lumbering about the park (when there was already Barry and NDJ in the starting XI) was quite shameful, but that's the manager's problem. If 45,500 Blues can see he was breathing out his arse and completely ineffective in a defensive midfield yet the boss cant, what chance have you got??!

The thing that pissed us off more was that he went into at least 3 tackles half heartedly towards the end of the 2nd half, yet he was like Linford Christie when he burst into the box wanting the ball rolled in for a shot at goal from Tevez! So it proved he had the energy, but just couldn't be arsed!! Bring back Didi Hamann all is forgiven.....!

 

[bluecityste]

He was immense on Sunday against West Brom.

Last night obviously he wasn't at the same level, and t was very frustrating at times. BUT the way in which he, when the opportunity arose, could out muscle 3 or 4 united players was exciting and a positive going forward.

People shouldn't underestimate 3 points consistently made in this thread:

1- He was in an advanced central midfield position. Therefore, his primary role was that of support for the attacking players.

2- Fitness. Obviously it seems like he may not be quite at the level which we think he should be. This however would only have been made worse by the fact that, yet again, the opposition had an extra day recuperation time in before facing us. Also, 2 games in 3 and a bit days can only add to this problem.

3- The mix/blend of the team will heavily affect how influencial he will be. With a fully fit and up to prem speed Kolerov/Boatang/Balotelli he will be much more effective.

I think Yaya will prove to be a fantastic player for us, he has shown glimpses at times and Sundays MOTM performance away from home shows what will hopefully proove to be the future....unfortunately it seems like it's taking a bit longer for us to see it consistently, but it will come.